Card Factory sales boosted by store openings

GARETH MACKIE

Greetings card retailer Card Factory today said it remained confident of adding about 50 stores to its estate this year as it revealed a boost to sales from recent expansion.

The firm, which floated in May, has opened 36 stores over the past six months, taking its total to 749. This growth helped total sales rise 8.9 per cent since the start of its financial year – excluding store openings, like-for-like sales rose 2.6 per cent.

Chief executive Richard Hayes said the chain has a “strong pipeline” of opportunities for new stores, with a target of opening about 50 during the full financial year.

He added: “The group continued to trade well in the first half of the current financial year with good growth coming from the existing store estate and new store roll-out programme, as well as from our smaller but developing online proposition.”